Articles

'TEMPER' TANTRUM!

14th May 2002

Prodigy's new single, 'Baby's Got A Temper', will be denied mainstream radio
play because of its constant references to the 'date rape' drug, Rohypnol,
NME can exclusively reveal.

In a scarely coincidental echo of the controversy
stirred up by the band's infamous 1997 single 'Smack My Bitch
Up', which was largely banned from the radio and its ultra-violent
video on shown late night TV, 'Baby's Got A Temper' will
not be featured on the daytime playlist of any major radio
stations.

The single, released
on july 1, is the Prodigy's first new material in five
years. Descriped by main man Liam
Howlett as "a wall of fucking noise", 'Baby's Got
A Temper' is a brutal clash of hard beats, electronic rhythms,
guitar riffs and Keith Flint's trademark dirty vocals. Despite
its subject matter and the radio ban, it's likely to follow
'Firestarter', which it samples, to Number One.

The lyrics, written
by Keith Flint, include chorus: "We love Rohypnol / She got Rohypnol/ We take
Rohypnol / Just ot forget it all" and "This baby's
got a temper / You'll never tame her". At one point,
Flint simply chants "Rohypnol, Rohypnol, Rohypnol".

Rohypnol, the trade name for Flunitrazepam,
is a tranquilizer which causes muscle relaxation and amnesia
and has gained an infamous reputation as a 'date rape' drug
following cases of it being mixed with alcohol to incapacitate
victims and prevent them from resisting sexual assault.

Despite the obvious controversy any song
celebrating Rohypnol is bound to cause, Prodigy insist their
song has nothing to do with date rape.

Keith Flint to NME:
"I don't know its true medical title. Have I tried it? Oh yeah, absolutely.
That's what the song is about. It's a reflection on going out, maybe doing cocaine,
then doing downers. Y'know, some people do all manner of downers and Rohypnol
is one of them.

"If I wanted Rohypnol,
I could get it off girlfriends of mine, so I wrote about
that, how punk
they are. I respect that. A lot of girls I know are more
out there than guys. The song is just thoughts summoned up
about nights out, getting high, brinnning yourself back down
again. In its original format, it was quite slow, drugged-out
kind of song. Almost smacked out - which I wasn't doing myself,
at all. But that's where it was comming from. "

Asked about the radio
ban, Flint said: "I
don't really care. If I'm writing a tune, I have to visualise
it onstage, not on Radio 1. "

As NME went to press,
Radio 1 had placed an urgent request to Prodigy's record
company, XL, for a
copy to be sent to them, warning: "We always take a
responsible approach to the records that we play. "

Liam responded:
"We've literally just finished it so it will be a couple of weeks until
that stage. We know where we're comming from and we're not trying to change our
story. This is what the record is. It's a reflection on what goes on in Keith's
mad head and his mad world. The overall feel is like, Keith gets fucked up, goes
out with these girls, comes back and writes a song reflecting on his nights out
with these girls. He came with those lyrics and I'm like, ,Fucking cool'. I like
it. Have I tried Rohypnol? Absolurely, yeah. It's like modern day valium. "

'Baby's Got A Temper'
also includes the line "She's gonna be pretty printed on money / Just
like your royal family / This time there can be no funeral" -
but it was written before the death of the Queen Mum. "That
was good luck, wasn't it?" Flint told to NME. "But
that lyric is actually a statement about how hardcore these
girls are. "

The new Prodigy album,
'Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned', is now expected
in 2003. "I've got
80 per cent of the album sowhere in my studio," Howlett
said to NME. "I've just got to assemble it. The other
20 per cent is going to be collaborations and stuff. "

The Prodigy, who headline the Reading and
Leeds festivals in August, are currently working on ideas
for the single's video.